Up to My Armpits in A-Holes

and i'm not talking about the staff. they're all being wonderful, actually. there are a few ball buster surgeons, but so far the PA mafia has kept me pretty much protected from their evil doings.

i'm noticing my improvements in cases, too. my job right now is to get to know each doctor's methods for different procedures and to get to know them well enough that they trust me to assist them. and also to become adept at all the various things the 1st assistant does...sewing and cutting and holding and cauterizing and tying and prepping and closing the patient...generally making the surgeon's life easier. sometimes we're just another pair of hands. but those hands have to be graceful and move with dexterity and ease. more on that later. hands are a big part of my job (and my life, in fact).

so about those a-holes. i did two bowel cases today w/ the "butt boys." these are the colorectal surgeons who work to remove colon tumors, clean up messy diverticular disasters, etc. so when you take the diseased part of the bowel out, you have to somehow connect the top part of the tube above where you cut to the bottom part of the tube, below where you cut. or poop will go everywhere inside the patient. and this is frowned on. so in order to do this, one person has to prepare the above bowel (in the belly) and another person has to prepare the below bowel (in the rectum). this means that someone (me) is sticking a 2 ft long stick w/ a stapler on the end up someone's bum. the stapler both affixes the 2 ends of colon, but also makes a hole (lumen) through the middle of them so they're nice and attached and open wide for 'passage.' it's very complicated. and very awesome. and extremely disgusting. i felt like i needed to send that patient flowers after i violated her in her most holiest of holies. ("hole-ies?") :)

so it was very interesting. two cases, one laparoscopic and one open, took us a total of 10 hrs w/ just a short break between them. so i'm tired. but i'm already accumulating overtime hrs, which is pretty cool. what i'll do w/ all this time off, i have no idea. i'll need to start thinking sabatical-in-europe or time-to-have-a-baby-and-go-on-maternity-leave thoughts to figure out how to take advantage of my vacation plus all these extra hours i'll be working that i get to keep to use.

a very good problem to have.

and i'm in a great mood. perfect weather. i love these days where i can still wear sandals on my feet, but need a big fuzzy sweatshirt on top. fantastic.

and both my anniversary and birthday (and Christmas) are coming up, so i'm excited for all that, too.